Alexander Harris
Alexander Lavelle "Xander" Harris is a friend of Slayer Buffy Summers and founding member of the Scooby Gang. Arguably the weak link of the team, Xander aids his friends with his emotional insight and support. Xander is portrayed by Nicholas Brendon, whose twin brother Kelly Donovan occasionally appeared as his double. Biography Early life Alexander Lavelle Harris was born to Anthony and Jessica Harris in Sunnydale, California. According to Xander, his dad once tried to sell him to some Armenians. Tony is a self-pitying drunk and Jessica is a fragile mess without a stove; her culinary repertoire includes a "famous phone call to the Chinese place." She's known to neglect her son and appear cheerful in front of strangers as an attempt to cover the true nature of her miserable life. Xander's uncle, Rory, is an alcoholic taxidermist. Every Christmas, Xander sleeps outside to avoid his family's drunken arguments. Neither parent is happy with their marriage, but they have stayed together for decades. When he was thirteen, Xander attended Willow's bat mitzvah, where his parents drank to excess. Throughout the series, Xander's family was said to be unreliable and even abusive, and the main source of his insecurities. Xander briefly dated his best friend Willow Rosenberg, but they broke up over a stolen Barbie when they were five. At his sixth birthday party, which Willow attended, his parents hired a clown who chased him, resulting in his fear of clowns. When Xander did not get a toy fire truck for his seventh birthday, the house next door caught fire. Xander saw real fire trucks then and believes he had Willow to thank. Xander and Willow developed a mutual hatred of their snobby classmate Cordelia Chase, which led them to form the "We Hate Cordelia Chase" club, of which Xander was the treasurer. Sunnydale High In his sophomore year of high school, Xander meets Buffy Summers on her first day at Sunnydale High. He overhears her bizarre conversation with Rupert Giles in the school library and loses his male best friend Jesse McNally to vampires."Welcome to the Hellmouth" Xander takes the stand that "vampires are bad," and is forced to reluctantly stake his former friend."The Harvest" Following Jesse's death, Xander becomes a wisecracking sidekick of the Scooby Gang, often annoying those around him, including Angel,"Enemies" and the more uptight Giles. Xander soon develops a crush on Buffy, but it is not reciprocated. He saves Buffy's life by administering CPR after she is bitten by The Master and left to drown in a pool of water."Prophecy Girl" Xander gradually begins a turbulent and ambiguous relationship with Cordelia after they are thrown together in several life-or-death situations. The military knowledge Xander acquires - thanks to a spell"Halloween" - enables Buffy to defeat the Judge, a supposedly invulnerable demon."Innocence" When being seen with Xander costs Cordelia her position among Sunnydale High's fashionable clique, she dumps him on Valentine's Day. Xander retaliates by coercing Amy Madison to cast a love spell, which misfires: for a few hours, until the spell is broken, Xander finds himself irresistible to every girl, woman, and female vampire in sight; except Cordelia, who, realizing how much Xander cares for her, reunites with him in defiance of her former friends."Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" Xander revives an interest in Willow in their senior year of high school, and they share a kiss which leads to Cordelia suffering near-fatal injury,"Lovers Walk" and the arrival of the vengeance demon Anyanka in Sunnydale."The Wish" Following their break-up, Cordelia steps up her usual ridicule of Xander, labeling him "The Zeppo" and mocking him for being useless compared to his friends, who are Slayers, witches, werewolves, and vampires. In an attempt to prove her wrong, Xander embarks on an adventure with a group of zombies led by tough guy Jack O'Toole, losing his virginity to Faith Lehane in the process. However, when O'Toole and his friends try to blow up Sunnydale High, Xander single-handedly puts an end to their plan."The Zeppo" Later, he is asked to the Prom by Anya, formerly the vengeance demon Anyanka. At his high school graduation, Xander leads Sunnydale High's students against Mayor Wilkins and his vampires."Graduation Day, Part Two" Growing up In Season Four, Xander's inferiority complex and feelings of isolation increase when he chooses not to enroll in college with his friends. After graduating from high school, he sets upon a cross-country trip inspired by Jack Kerouac's On the Road that ends when his car breaks down. Returning to Sunnydale, he moves into his parents' basement, for which he has to pay rent, and takes a series of odd jobs as a food vendor, a bartender, a phone-sex operator, and a deliveryman. After much persuasion, he has sex with Anya and they begin dating. Initially, his interest in Anya is purely sexual, but as the season progesses, he develops genuine feelings for her, eventually falling in love. In the Season Four finale "Primeval," Xander gives Buffy his "heart" in the spell that defeats Adam. Season Five sees Xander mature significantly, pursuing a more stable career in carpentry and construction work, and moving into his own apartment with Anya. When famous vampire Dracula comes to Sunnydale in search of the Slayer, he hypnotises Xander into briefly becoming his willing manservant (cf. "Buffy vs. Dracula"). After being hit by the demon Toth's Ferula Gemini, Xander is split into two separate beings; one displaying his strengths and one displaying his weaknesses (cf. "The Replacement"). In "Triangle", he defends Willow and Anya equally from Anya's ex-boyfriend, Olaf the Troll, despite being forced to choose between them. Shortly before going into battle with the hell-goddess Glory, Xander asks Anya to marry him should they survive. By the sixth season, Xander is beginning to have doubts about his future with Anya. Hoping for a happy ending, he summons the demon Sweet to turn Sunnydale into a living musical, which goes horribly wrong when people start bursting into flames as well as song (cf. "Once More With Feeling"). Xander's fears over marrying Anya are made worse by a visit from a demon pretending to be his future self, showing him a bitter future trapped in a marriage similar to his parents' (cf. "Hell's Bells"). Although the vision is later revealed to be false, Xander admits to having doubts beforehand and leaves a heartbroken Anya at the altar. When Willow turns evil after her girlfriend Tara Maclay is killed, Xander's love for his childhood friend turns her around and saves the world (cf. "Grave"). In Season Seven, Xander struggles over his feelings with Anya and suffers a devastating injury. When Buffy's sister Dawn mistakenly believes herself to be a Potential Slayer, Xander empathises with her disappointment at not being the one in the spotlight (cf. "Potential"). Despite admitting that they still love each other, he and Anya finally break up for good, but continue to have the odd fling in times of crisis. In the episode "Dirty Girls," Xander has his left eye gouged out by the evil preacher Caleb, and begins wearing an eyepatch.In the DVD commentary for the episode "Dirty Girls", writer Drew Goddard mentions there was talk of killing off Xander towards the end of Season 7 and having The First Evil assume Xander's appearance when conversing with Buffy for the remainder of the season. This was ultimately decided against since Xander was thought to be too important to the series, and that his death occurring so late in the season would leave little time to deal with it correctly, and that throughout the series' run, Xander was the one character who never wavered, and to punish that characteristic with death would send a message the staff wasn't trying to get across. Instead of killing Xander, he was blinded in one eye. In the final battle against the First Evil, Anya is killed by a Bringer's sword, and her body remains in the new Sunnydale High's ruins as the empty town is swallowed by the earth. Andrew Wells, whom she had fought alongside, comforts Xander by saying that Anya had died saving his life. Xander replies by saying, "That's my girl. Always doing the stupid thing." Post-Sunnydale The last time Xander is referenced on television (in the Angel episode "Damage"), he is in Africa, rounding up Potential Slayers for Buffy. He later featured in the story "Antique" in the Tales of the Vampires comic book line, having spent some time under the thrall of Dracula again, as his manservant. He is summarily rescued by Buffy and two newly-activated Slayers. In the Season Eight comic book series, Xander leads Slayer "central command" in Scotland. Buffy describes him as her "Watcher" which he disputes. From Slayer central command, Xander views his operatives on a large screen as well as monitors progress from several manned computers, talking to his Slayers through earpieces in an Oracle or Nick Fury-style role. As Xander is the leader of all the various Slayer cells, he has access to a series of cameras watching his Slayers, operatives working at computers, and several psychics and neophyte witches at his command. He remains in contact with Andrew and Giles, and maintains a close relationship with Buffy, Willow and Dawn. Powers and abilities Xander represents the importance of everyday humans in the struggle against evil since he has proven that even an "average" person can make a difference and save the world. He possesses no special powers or abilities, but he gains much experience from battling by Buffy's side. As Buffy explains to the Watchers' Council, Xander has clocked more field time than all of the Watchers combined (cf. "Checkpoint"). His powers of persuasion and empathy are often his most useful assets. For example, Xander saves the world from Willow using only his words in the episode "Grave." He also recognizes that Buffy and Riley are "imploding" and forces Buffy to face the role that she played in the failed relationship (cf. "Into the Woods"). While possessed by a demonic "hyena" spirit in the Season One episode "The Pack," Xander exhibits enhanced strength equal, if not superior, to a Slayer, and heightened senses, as well as a taste for fresh, raw meat, and a lack of social inhibitions. Xander is briefly transformed into a soldier on Halloween, and thereby acquires military training and weapons knowledge. His abilities fade, but do not disappear completely, over the next few years, allowing him to use such information as military codes and training, allowing him to organize a defense against Mayor Wilkins after he has transformed into Olvikan and acquire a rocket launcher to stop the indestructible demon known as the Judge. Xander was once hit by a bolt from the Ferula Gemina which split his personality into two different beings (cf. "The Replacement"), resulting in one Xander who was laid-back and confident, easily getting a promotion and a large apartment, and another Xander who was highly insecure and paranoid, believing that the other him was a demon who was hypnotizing his friends. Xander is something of an expert on pop culture; he can be seen reading an X-Men comic in the episode "Tough Love" and references both Human Torch and Sergeant Fury. In the episode "Seeing Red", Xander displays the ability to read Klingon. In Season Seven, he often demonstrates pop culture knowledge rivaling that of Andrew Wells. Xander becomes a skilled carpenter by the end of the series, gaining practical job experience from repairing damage caused by various combats involving the Scooby Gang and as a foreman of a construction crew. He was first promoted to this position in the Season Five episode "The Replacement." Spike at one point referred to Xander mockingly as 'a glorified bricklayer.' In Season Seven, both Xander and the evil priest Caleb make reference to Xander being "the one that sees everything" in that he sees his friends' flaws and strengths more clearly than anyone else, simply because no one is looking at him, even going so far as Dawn saying that this perhaps is his superpower. This human (non supernatural) strength - his insight, empathy, and understanding - is what prompts Caleb to take Xander's eye, also knowing it would anger Buffy. In Season Eight, his military knowledge gives him the leadership of a government-described "army" of Slayers, witches and seers, viewed as an international "terrorist" organization based in a Scottish citadel. The organization which he heads alongside Buffy carries high-tech and magical weaponry. Xander oversees orchestrates the efforts of Willow, Dawn, Buffy and his Slayers through cameras and earpieces. Romantic relationships A recurring joke about Xander is that he is a "demon magnet," as many of the women he has dated or been attracted to have turned out to be demonic or in some other way supernatural. * Willow Rosenberg — After a brief romantic involvement in elementary school, Xander and Willow are best friends for years. Xander shares a moment of tenderness with Willow during the boring summer of 1997, which is ended by Buffy's return. Later, in the show's third season, Xander and Willow began a secret romance while he was dating Cordelia and she was dating Oz. This ends when Cordelia and Oz rescue Xander and Willow, who have been kidnapped by Spike, and discover them kissing. However, at some level, Xander retains deep feelings for Willow, these feelings are what he reaches out to in order to turn Dark Willow from her path of destroying the world, simply by refusing to leave as she commands him and bringing up all the incidents in their life they had shared and the friendship between them. * Buffy Summers — Seeing her on her first day at Sunnydale High caused Xander to crash into a railing, literally falling head over heels. Buffy, however, sees Xander only as a friend, and over time, they have become surrogate siblings (the only exception to this was in the episode "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", see below) In issue two of Buffy Season 8, Buffy dreams of them being in a relationship, a dream in which Buffy attempts a more than platonic kiss (which results in Xander's still talking head popping off his shoulders), and it is implied that they have slept in the same bed. * Miss Natalie French — The real teacher was born in 1907 and taught for a few decades. Her name was stolen by a demonic she-mantis whose pheromones attracted many of Sunnydale's males. She drugged Xander's drink at her house and intended to mate with him before beheading him. Buffy managed to stop her and save Xander in time. * "Ampata" — The Incan mummy girl, impersonating an exchange student named Ampata, wanted to live the normal life she never had a chance to. She fell for Xander as he was the first male she'd ever met who didn't treat her as a princess, but as a person. However, her love with Xander was short-lived when she attempted to kiss him (and thus draining him of life to continue her own), when he offered himself to her to stop her draining Buffy and Willow. In the end, however, she collapsed from lack of energy, and never reached any of them. * Every woman in Sunnydale — When Amy Madison performed the magic spell to make Cordelia fall madly in love with Xander just so he could break up with her and hurt her, it backfired and made every woman (vampire Drusilla included) in Sunnydale except Cordelia fall in love with the "irresistible" Xander Harris; as a result, Xander was nearly killed by a veritable army of demented women who were resolved to kill Xander if they couldn't have him for themselves, and Buffy was briefly turned into a rat by a jealous Amy. * Cordelia Chase — Cordelia and Xander meet as children and are antagonistic from the beginning, making their romantic relationship in high school all the more bewildering. They faced several obstacles, including peer pressure from Cordelia's clique (she is ostracized from her social circle), Cordelia's self-involved and insensitive manner, and Xander's unresolved attraction to Willow, Buffy, and Faith. When Cordelia discovers Xander and Willow kissing in the basement of an abandoned factory (where they are being held prisoner), she ends their relationship for good. By the end of Season Three, they have settled into a hesitant friendship (for example, Xander buys her a prom dress after he discovers that her family has lost its wealth). After graduation, their lives take different paths; he remains in Sunnydale and fights evil with Buffy, and she moves to Los Angeles to become an actress (see Angel) and later "helps the helpless" with Angel. * Faith Lehane — Some weeks after his relationship with Cordelia dissolved, Xander found himself helping Faith fight a demon one night in the episode "The Zeppo." After the battle, an adrenaline-fueled Faith took Xander back to her apartment and had sex with him; this was Xander's first sexual encounter. Weeks later, after Faith had gone rogue and killed a man, Xander confronted her about her actions. Faith started to rape Xander and then to strangle him before being hit in the head with a baseball bat by Angel. Faith mentions that she never wanted a relationship like Xander thought that she did, and was merely with him for the sex. During Season 7 of Buffy, when some Potential Slayers complain about Anya mentioning her sex-life with Xander, Faith says that whenever she hears Anya talking about sex, she reminds Anya that she was Xander's first, which makes Anya shut up. * Anya Jenkins — Xander's most long-term relationship, despite such problems as Anya's total disregard for normal social conventions such as not talking about sex in public. Despite this, however, the two fell deeply in love, coming very close to getting married, and retained strong feelings for each other. The two officially remained broken up, but once Xander lost his eye Anya began to care for him more. The two became swept up in the moment when overhearing Willow and Kennedy, and Principal Wood and Faith respectively having sex. Before going into the final battle Anya and Xander wish each other luck. Anya fights alongside Andrew, but she is killed by a Bringer. As the school is crumbling Xander frantically calls out Anya's name but doesn't notice her body lying on the floor. When Xander asks Andrew what happened to Anya he is told that she died protecting him, to which Xander replies 'That's my girl, always doing the stupid thing.'. * Nancy — After being frustrated with his own relationship problems with Anya and others in the past, Xander luckily runs into Nancy and, along with the gang, protects her from a giant worm-like demon that was specifically attacking her. Xander walks her home, and both new at dating, they awkwardly ask each other out. However, after finding out the demon is Nancy's ex-boyfriend who was turned into the worm-like creature by Xander's own ex-fiancee, Anya, the two never date. * Lissa — Approximately a year after his breakup with Anya, Xander takes another dip in the dating pool, and impulsively asks out Lissa, a beautiful woman he meets at a hardware store. Their date goes well until Lissa ties Xander to a torture wheel, reveals herself to be a demon, and cheerfully prepares to use Xander as a human sacrifice. Xander, before being rescued, ponders what causes him to keep getting involved with female demons. * Renee — Renee is a young Slayer who has a crush on Xander. Directly before the attack by Amy's army of the undead, she and another Slayer are conversing about Renee's feelings for him, which she denies. Later she and Xander joke with each other and he comforts her about feeling like she was doing a poor job as a Slayer. She appears in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comic. Appearances Canonical appearances Xander has been in 148 canonical Buffyverse appearances. ;Buffy the Vampire Slayer : Xander was a series regular for all seven seasons, but was absent from "Conversations with Dead People". He appeared in 143 in total. ;Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic : Xander has appeared in five issues so far. *The Long Way Home, Parts 1-4 *No Future For You, Part 1 Other stories featuring Xander which are considered canonical include "Antique" from the 2004 comic mini-series Tales of the Vampires. Non-canonical appearances Xander has also appeared in Buffy expanded universe material. He appears in most of the Buffy comics and novels, and is a playable character in the 2003 video game Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds. See also * Anya Jenkins * Vampire Xander References Category:Scooby Gang Category:Sunnydale High students Category:Non-powered humans Category:Males Category:Werewolves and primals Category:Possession victims